Will cooperate with ED in gold smuggling case, says Home Minister Parameshwara
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Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara on Thursday assured full cooperation with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in its ongoing raids at the educational institutions linked to him, as part of a money laundering investigation related to an alleged gold smuggling racket.
The ED is probing alleged financial irregularities and has searched 16 locations in the state under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), targeting hawala operators and accommodation entry operators who allegedly made 'fake' financial transactions into accounts linked to gold smuggling accused and Kannada actress Ranya Rao.
According to Parameshwara, ED officials visited three institutions and a university, including Siddhartha Institute of Technology and Siddhartha Medical College, seeking financial records from the past five years.
He said he has instructed his staff to cooperate and provide all necessary information to the ED.
"As a person who believes in the law of the land, I am prepared to cooperate with whatever comes out of their verifications or searches," he said.
To a query on allegations that Rs 40 lakh from his institution's account was used to pay Ranya Rao's credit card bill, Parameshwara declined to comment, saying he would respond after the investigation is complete.
He also refrained from commenting on speculation that he was targeted due to his Dalit background, and said he would address it if necessary in the future.
Rao was arrested on March 3 at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru after arriving from Dubai. Acting on a tip-off, DRI officials detained her and seized gold bars weighing 14.2 kg and valued at over Rs 12.56 crore.
Ranya and co-accused Tarun Kondaru Raju were granted bail on Tuesday by a special court for Economic Offences in Bengaluru in connection with the gold smuggling case.
The court approved their default bail applications after the DRI failed to file a chargesheet within the stipulated period.
Ranya, however, will continue to remain behind bars.
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Traffic fraud: Fake 'no-entry' sticker racket busted in Delhi, mastermind among 3 held
New Delhi (PTI): Police here have busted a crime syndicate involved in traffic fraud and extortion, arresting three people including the alleged mastermind who sold fake stickers to help commercial vehicles bypass no-entry restrictions, an official said on Saturday.
The police said they dismantled a third organised syndicate linked to traffic-related frauds, with the arrest of Rinku Rana alias Bhushan, his associate Sonu Sharma and Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, who was also connected to another extortion syndicate.
According to the police, Rinku Rana was running a well-organised network that facilitated the movement of commercial goods vehicles during restricted hours by selling fake 'marka' or stickers for Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 per vehicle every month. The stickers were falsely projected as authorisation to evade traffic challans.
During raids, the police recovered Rs 31 lakh in cash, property documents worth several crores of rupees, over 500 fake stickers and six mobile phones allegedly used to operate the syndicate.
The crackdown followed a complaint filed by a traffic police officer in April this year after a commercial vehicle tried to evade checking by producing a fake sticker claiming exemption from enforcement action.
Investigation revealed that social media groups were being used to coordinate the illegal movement of vehicles and alert drivers about traffic police checkpoints, police said.
"A parallel system was being run to cheat drivers and vehicle owners while undermining traffic enforcement. On the basis of evidence, provisions related to organised crime under the BNS were invoked," a senior police officer said.
Sonu Sharma, the police said, managed social media groups through which stickers were sold and real-time alerts were circulated regarding traffic police movement. He also acted as a link between Rana and drivers operating in the field.
In a related development, Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, an associate of Rajkumar alias Raju Meena, who was earlier arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), was also apprehended.
Mukesh allegedly helped extort money from transporters and was involved in blackmailing traffic police personnel by recording enforcement actions, the police said.
Investigators alleged the syndicate led by Rajkumar deployed drivers to deliberately violate traffic rules and secretly record police officials during challans, later using manipulated videos to extort money under threat of false allegations.
The police said that in total, eight accused belonging to three different organised crime syndicates linked to traffic frauds and extortion have been arrested so far.
Further investigation is underway to trace the remaining members, conduct financial probes, and analyse digital evidence recovered during the raids, officials added.
